TRAUMA OR, MONSTERS ALL
Larry Fessenden (2026 118 mins, Arri Alexa, 1:85)
Laëtitia Hollard, Aitana Doyle Addison Timlin, Alex Hurt, Alex Breaux, Larry Fessenden John Speredakos, Cody Kostro, Marc Senter Micheál Neeson, Joseph Castillo-Midyett, Rigo Garay Barbara Crampton as Kate with Joshua Leonard and James Le Gros
When visiting writer Cassandra asks: “Are There Monsters Outside my Window” in the local paper, the answer leads to a traumatic showdown in the quiet town of Talbot Falls.
Variety
William Earl, August 5, 2026
Indie film icon Larry Fessenden is planning a monster mash — and it’s gearing up to be a graveyard smash.
The horror multi-hyphenate has just wrapped filming of his upcoming film — “Larry Fessenden’s Trauma Or, Monsters All” — and is heading into post-production, Variety can report exclusively. The film serves as a sequel to three other films he has written and directed: 1995’s vampire tale “Habit,” his 2019 “Frankenstein” riff “Depraved” and 2023 werewolf film “Blackout.”
“It was a slightly absurd mission to present my existential take on these monsters in a contemporary mash-up, but I enjoyed the challenge and I hope the film will feel both familiar and provocative,” Fessenden said in a statement, which also shared that he is “a lifelong fan of Universal Monster classics and the powerful messages about us that they can convey.”
Fessenden himself reprises the role of Sam from “Habit,” while Alex Breaux returns to portray Adam from “Depraved” and Alex Hurt revives his role as Charley from “Blackout.” According to the film’s logline, the story “places the filmmaker’s beloved visions of this trio of ghouls under one roof, offering up an unexpectedly humanist and uncanny tale.”
Also joining the cast are Laëtitia Hollard (“The Pitt”), Aitana Doyle (“If That Mockingbird Don’t Sing”) and returning actors from Fessenden’s past films, including Addison Timlin, James Le Gros, John Speredakos, Cody Kostro, Marc Senter, Rigo Garay, Joseph Castillo-Midyett, Joshua Leonard and Barbara Crampton.
“Larry Fessenden’s Trauma Or, Monsters All” is produced by Fessenden, Gaby Leyner, James Felix McKenney, and Tilson Allen-Merry for Glass Eye Pix. Stirling duBell and Chris Ingvordson also produce, with Edwin Linker as executive producer. Lois Drabkin handled casting on the film, which was shot by cinematographer Sharif El Neklawy.
This film marks Fessenden’s eighth directorial effort, and he has acted in over 100 films.
TRAUMA is a continuation of multiple themes that Fessenden has explored in a series of revisionist, present-day interpretations of familiar horror archetypes. His 1995 vampire film HABIT explores loneliness, alienation and addiction in New York city in the 1990s. HABIT went on to earn Fessenden the Someone to Watch Award and two Spirit Award Nominations. In 2019 he released DEPRAVED, a retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein set in a Brooklyn loft. A field Surgeon suffering from PTSD after a tour of duty in Iraq strives to make a man out of body parts collected by his nefarious benefactor, an opportunistic pharmaceutical entrepreneur. DEPRAVED explores identity, memory, science and parenthood in a sweeping and heartbreaking rendition of the timeless classic. Fessenden followed this with BLACKOUT (2022), a film comparing alcoholism with the werewolf affliction in a tale set in an upstate hamlet that blames a spate of brutal killings on the local immigrant community. Fessenden again delves into the social stresses of the times with a humanist response. TRAUMA stands as a summation of the various themes explored in the trilogy of films, reuniting characters from all three movies to tell a new story about the fundamental difficulty of finding a common narrative to give meaning and consensus in the modern world.
